Ballots, Babies, and Banners of Peace

BALLOTS, BABIES, AND BANNERS OF PEACE

INSTRUCTOR’S GUIDE

Winner of the 2013 National Jewish Book Award, Women’s Studies

Ballots, Babies, and Banners of Peace explores the social and political activism of American Jewish women from approximately 1890 to the beginnings of World War II.

Written in an engaging style, the book demon- strates that no history of the birth control, suffrage, or peace movements in the United States is complete without analyzing the impact of Jewish women’s presence. The volume is based on years of extensive primary source research in more than a dozen archives and among hundreds of primary sources, many of which have previously never been seen. Volu- minous personal papers and institutional re- cords paint a vivid picture of a world in which both middle-class and working-class American Jewish women were consistently and publicly engaged in all the major issues of their day and worked closely with their non-Jewish counterparts on behalf of activist causes.

This extraordinarily well researched volume makes a unique contribution to the study of modern women’s history, modern Jewish history, and the history of American social movements.

301 PAGES PAPER • 978-1-4798-5059-4

WWW . NYUPRESS . ORG NYU PRESS U.S History, Women’s Studies, and Jewish Studies: Teaching Guide

For students of U.S. History, Women’s Studies, and Jewish Studies, Ballots, Babies, and Banners of Peace provides a fresh look at women’s critical social and political activism during the first half of the twentieth century. Through an engaging and accessible narrative focused on Jewish women’s participation in the suffrage, birth control, and peace movements, readers will gain a deeper understanding of the interplay of gender, religious, ethnic, and national identities. They will see how important a role Jewish women activists played in shaping not only the American Jewish community during a tumultuous period of immigration and consolidation but also in first-wave feminism. The narrative also conveys the ways in which anti-Semitism both at home and abroad shaped Jewish women’s activist experiences. The deeply researched book paints a vivid picture of a world in which both middle-class and working-class American Jewish women were consistently and publicly engaged in all of the major issues of their day and worked closely with their non-Jewish counterparts on behalf of activist causes.

CONTENTS • Chapter Summaries with Discussion Questions • Questions for Reflection • Supplementary Assignments

2 NYU PRESS INSTRUCTOR’S GUIDE 3 INTRODUCTION

each other the decades following the passage of The ongoing feminist activism during the Nineteenth Amendment movement than has typically been diversity within the women’s The greater the between the development of the American Jewish community and The relationship movement women’s larger of power and to connect the movement to alter relations The ability of the women’s personal and the political faced in balancing the benefits of The tensions American Jews, liked all ethnic groups, of their heritage acculturation with the preservation about Jewish identity and identification in the lives The importance of thinking broadly of historical actors social movements The persistence of anti-Semitism in even the most progressive of both Jews and women as political actors and citizens The simultaneous emergence during the first half of the twentieth century The relationship of feminist causes such as suffrage, birth control, and peace to and peace to control, birth of feminist causes such as suffrage, The relationship BALLOTS, BABIES, AND BANNERS OF PEACE The introduction also places the book in the context of scholarship in the history also places the book in the context of scholarship in the history The introduction studies, religious American ethnic history, of feminism, American Jewish history, material and gender studies. Almost none of the extensive archival and women’s of the book has ever been examined by scholars before. at the core • • acknowledged • • • • • • • The introduction serves as a foundation for the themes of the book, the themes of the book, serves as a foundation for The introduction nalism as a rationale for women’s activism allowed Jewish women to join these join these activism allowed Jewish women to for women’s nalism as a rationale motherhood was a value shadows of anti-Semitism, since movements despite and ethnic, racial, religious, all kinds of class, by American women across shared women activists have been absent from national boundaries. American Jewish feminism and American Jewish history. on both first-wave American the literature and peace movements birth control, suffrage, Exploring their participation in the our understanding of the com- them to their rightful place and deepens restores citizenship in the United States. by which women fought for full plex process which include: Opening with a biographical vignette about a Jewish women heavily involved heavily involved a Jewish women vignette about with a biographical Opening outside it, the introduction inside the Jewish community and in activities both - and early twentieth cen of the late nineteenth energy reform notes the great Jewish women, whether native-bornturies. American or immigrant, found that Al- acculturation. a path toward movements provided involvement in activist and peace birth control, movements, the suffrage, secular though they were to large movements formedthat appealed greatly a cluster of feminist activity focus on mater conceived Jewish women. A broadly numbers of American pages 1-17 pages

4 CHAPTER 1 the Suffrage Movementthe Suffrage (pages18-67) NewCitizenship”:Our Jewish American Women and “We Jewish Women ShouldbeEspeciallyInterested in • • • ILLUSTRATIONS QUESTIONS FORDISCUSSION forward tocontinuingexerttheirinfluenceontheworldaround them. more ofavoiceintheircommunalinstitutionssuchassynagoguesandlooked passage oftheNineteenthAmendment,AmericanJewishwomendemanded them, thoughimportantpoliticaldifferences ofthe persisted.Intheaftermath Jewish womenfoundinsuffrage acausethatcouldhelpbridgethegapbetween age oftheissuebyAmericanJewishpress. Middle-classandworking-class tofavorablecover evident ineverythingfromtorabbis’sermons votingpatterns American Jewishcommunitysupportedwomen’s righttovote.Thissupportwas bated byvariousexpressions ofanti-Semitisminthemovement,general through 1920.Thoughthere wassomeambivalencetoward suffrage, exacer significant roles inavariety ofsuffrage campaignsfrom approximately 1890 Jewish women’s groups committedtoenfranchisement.Jewishwomenplayed ment asindividualsandmembersofbothnon-sectariansuffrage groups and States andthenexplores multiplefacetsofAmericanJewishwomen’s involve - This chapterbeginswithabriefhistoryofthesuffrage movementintheUnited SUMMARY ➥ ➥ ➥ ➥ ➥ (North Carolina OfficeofArchives andHistory) Gretrude Weil atasuffrage demonstration Annie NathanMeyer(JacobRaderMarcus CenteroftheAmericanJewishArchives) Maud Nathan(JacobRaderMarcus CenteroftheAmericanJewishArchives) ➥ ➥ ➥ ➥ ➥ How didthediversityamongJewishwomenaffect theirexperiencesinthe Are there anypresent-day comparablesituations? What doesthisreveal aboutthesocialand religious limitsofthepast? How didanti-Semitismaffect Jewishwomen’s attitudestoward suffrage? to vote? In whatwaysdidtheAmericanJewishcommunitysupportwomen’s right suffrage movement? community? What impactdidwomen’s enfranchisementhaveontheAmericanJewish suffrage movement? What were themultiplewaysinwhichJewishwomenparticipated

NYU PRESSINSTRUCTOR’S GUIDE

- 5 CHAPTER 2

What impact did the birth control movement have on American Jewish culture movement have on American Jewish culture What impact did the birth control In what ways did Jewish women participate in the early birth control How did the radical roots of the birth control movement affect its reception its reception affect movement of the birth control How did the radical roots within the American Jewish community? and vice versa? the birth control How and why did so many Jewish women gravitate toward emphasized the importance movement when traditional Jewish culture What connections were there between the suffrage and birth control control and birth between the suffrage there What connections were of motherhood? ➥ ➥ ➥ ➥ ➥ (Corbin/Bettman Archive) Rose Pastor Stokes (Library of Congress) and Italian clinic in English, Yiddish, birth control Flyer advertising the Brownsville (Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College) Rose Heiman Halpern and her six children greet Margaret Sanger Sanger Margaret Rose Heiman Halpern greet six children and her ➥ ➥ movements? ➥ movement? ➥ ➥

• • BALLOTS, BABIES, AND BANNERS OF PEACE • ILLUSTRATIONS QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION the Birth Control Movement (pages 68-102) (pages Movement the Birth Control SUMMARY one, but spacing of childbirth is an ancient the timing and to control The desire as during the early twentieth century se took off movement per the birth control hands and women’s into like diaphragms moved that control new technologies investigates the early highly politicized debate. This chapter became part of a played Jewish women movement and the critical role control history of the birth fighting against the criminal- “early adopters” and as activists in it, especially as of contraception as and the classification of birth control ization of many aspects in the United States movement of the birth control The radical roots obscenity. Jewish women learned politically progressive meant that a substantial number of it early on as a means of personal autonomy about contraception and adopted to accessible As contraception became somewhat more mobility. and upward Jewish community conducted numbers of Jewish women, the American larger though in its favor, resolving eventually an extensive debate over birth control, productions. in cultural and found expression remained pockets of resistance domestic matters such as kosher meat Jewish women accustomed to politicizing - which traditionally both celebrated and reg consumption found that Judaism, adoption and for birth control fertile ground proved ulated (married) sexuality, community. activism within the American Jewish The American Jewish Community and the Early Years of Years the Early and American Community Jewish The “I Started to Get Smart, Not to Have So Many Children”: “I Started Get Children”: So Smart, to Many Have to Not 6 CHAPTER 3 (pages 103-134) for Peace”: Jewish Women, Peace andAcculturation Activism, Faiths“We United Sisters withOur ofOther inPetitioning • • ILLUSTRATIONS QUESTIONS FORDISCUSSION renowngained international fortheirsignificantpeaceworkthrough the1920s. Council ofJewishWomen andtheNationalFederationofTemple Sisterhoods for PeaceandFreedom, and Jewishwomen’s organizations suchastheNational women becamemajorplayersingroups liketheWomen’s League International that women’s activismwasnecessarytobringanendwar. IndividualJewish imperative forpeacestrengthened followingthefirstworldwar, asdidthebelief and traditions,whichencompassedmultiplerationalesforseekingpeace.The al benefitoffightinganti-Semitismworldwide.Theyalso drew onJewishtexts women foundappealingthisapproach topeacework,whichcarriedtheaddition- many backgrounds byexplicitly foregrounding genderidentity. AmericanJewish The women’s peacemovementoftheearlytwentiethcenturyattractedactivists SUMMARY ➥ ➥ ➥ ➥ Lillian D.Wald (JacobRaderMarcus CenteroftheAmericanJewishArchives) Fanny andArthurBrinwiththeirchildren (JudithBrinIngber) ➥ ➥ ➥ ➥ peace work?Whatwere someoftheiractivitiesinthemovement? Why were somanyJewishwomen’s organizations soheavilyfocusedon Oppose it?Whatrole didanti-Semitismplayinthesecommunalattitudes? In whatwaysdidtheAmericanJewishcommunitysupportpeacework? their acculturation? involvement inthepeacemovement?Howdidthisactivismcontributeto What were themultiplemotivationsforAmericanJewishwomen’s followingWorldinternationally War I? How andwhydidaseparatewomen’s peacemovementemerge NYU PRESSINSTRUCTOR’S GUIDE

7 CHAPTER 4

What were some of the Jewish religious debates over the issue of the issue of debates over some of the Jewish religious What were What were so many Jewish women’s organizations’ motivations for offering offering motivations for organizations’ so many Jewish women’s What were in the movement? prominent so many Jewish women doctors Why were in any How is the importance of historical context especially apparent movement and the fight to decriminalize contraception? movement and the fight to decriminalize movement? support to the birth control such vigorous birth control? discussion of eugenics and birth control? In what ways were Jewish women connected to the birth control clinic clinic Jewish women connected to the birth control In what ways were ➥ ➥ ➥ ➥ ➥ Bessie Louise Moses Bessie Louise Moses of Maryland Collection, University of Baltimore) (Planned Parenthood Hannah Mayer Stone (Library of Congress) ➥ ➥ ➥ ➥

➥ BALLOTS, BABIES, AND BANNERS OF PEACE • • ILLUSTRATIONS QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION the Mainstreaming of Birth Control (pages 135-173) Birth of the Mainstreaming Control movement shifted control and 1930s, the locus of the birth During the 1920s the United States and the ultimately across of clinics to the proliferation on restrictions many (though not all) of the legal to remove successful battles the movement as activists women continued to work for contraception. Jewish as particularly important their organizations through serving and professionals, women doctors number of Jewish clinics. A disproportionate advocates for local conducted important clinics and also face of the birth control became the human elements of the and usage. Various on contraceptive techniques research establishment took up the Jewish religious sometimes contentious American and gradually came out in favor of it, following rather question of birth control American Jewish women who used birth than leading the huge numbers of Although concerns between birth about the relationship with alacrity. control salient, in general American Jews acted in their remained and eugenics control movement and focusing on the in supporting the birth control own best interests and technology. culture, traditional among religion, potential for synchronicity SUMMARY “They Have Been the Pioneers”: American Jewish Women and Women American Jewish “They Been the Pioneers”: Have

8 CHAPTER 5 the 1930sand World War II(pages174-204) the Peace Movement, during andJewishIdentity the “Where Yellow Star Is”: Jewish American Women, • • • ILLUSTRATIONS QUESTIONS FORDISCUSSION slipped off theircommunalagendaforsometimetocome. groups foundtheirprevious pacifiststancesembarrassing,andpeacequietly order. ofWorld Intheaftermath War IIandtheHolocaust,someJewishwomen’s to pacifism,thoughmanychosefocusonhelpingassure apeacefulpostwar sided withtheirreligious/ethnic identityratherthantheirprevious commitments the worldcareened toward war, growing numbersofJewishwomenreluctantly a stand.Anti-semitism,latentorotherwise,playedrole inthesedynamics.As disappointment intheunwillingnessoftheirlong-timeactivistcolleaguestotake out tobeill-equippedrespond tosuchthreats, andJewishwomenfeltgreat Hitler andNazismtoJewsJudaism.Thepeacemovementingeneralturned of peaceincreasingly came intoconflictwiththeveryparticularthreats posedby ed toJewishcommunitiesabroad, facedadeepcrisisastheiruniversalistideals power. aboutworldeventsandconnect- Jewishwomenactivists,well-informed began, theworldsituationquicklydeterioratedastotalitarianregimes cameto Although peaceactivistsworldwidewere ridingawaveofoptimismasthe1930s SUMMARY ➥ ➥

➥ ➥ ➥ the AmericanJewishArchives) Estelle Sternbergerdelivering aradiobroadcast (Jacob RaderMarcus Center of Council ofJewishWomen meeting(JudithBrinIngber) Fanny Brin,JaneAddams,Hannah Greenebaum Solomon, andElsaLeviataNational Rebecca HourwichReyher(SchlesingerLibrary, Radcliffe Institute,Harvard University) ➥ ➥ ➥ ➥ ➥ react tothegrowing threats ofthe1930s?Whathappenedasuniversalist How didJewishwomenandtheAmericancommunitymore generally during theearly1930s? In whatwayswere Jewishwomenheavilyinvolved withthepeacemovement ideas aboutpeacecameintoconflictwithparticularistthreats toJewsand broke out? Why didJewishidentitybecomemore importanttopeaceactivistsduring did anti-Semitismplay? Jewish womenpeaceactivistssoupsetaboutthisresponse? Whatrole, ifany, world situationduringthe1930sandthenWorld War II?Whywere How didthelarger women’s peacemovementrespond tothedeteriorating Judaism inEurope? What didJewishwomeninvolvedinpeaceworkdo onceWorld War II this period? NYU PRESSINSTRUCTOR’S GUIDE

9 CONCLUSION BALLOTS, BABIES, AND BANNERS OF PEACE (pages 205-209) (pages the first half activism during played in women’s role Jewishness on the Reflecting - the multiple meanings of Jew explores the conclusion of the twentieth century, women activists engaged the question of why Jewish ish identity and considers not at in a way they were have been invisible to historians in first-wave feminism the book to include the implications of also broadens the time. The conclusion Jewish American generally. more acculturation of processes gender in of role the political activism that contin- period left a legacy of social and women during this of the American Jewish American feminism and the contours ues to shape both community.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION ➥ ➥ ➥ ➥ ➥ ➥ ➥ ➥ ➥ ➥ ➥ ➥ ➥ ➥ ➥ ➥ ➥ ➥ ➥ ➥ ➥ ➥ ➥ ➥ ➥ ➥ How doactivistscopewhenreality challengestheirdeeplyheldvisions fromevident inthisbook?Whatcanbelearned them? When, why, andhowwere tensionswithintheAmericanJewishcommunity viewed theirownactivism?Diditalwaysdoso? How didtheirJewishnessfigure prominently intothewaysJewishwomen attending toJewishwomen? How and why did participation in modern socialmovementsenableJewishHow andwhydidparticipationinmodern ethnicity intheiranalyses? Why havehistoriansofAmericanwomenlargely neglectedreligion and and ideals? How are thehistoriesofeach ofthesesocialmovementschangedby issues ofdiversity, includingclass,religion, nationalorigins,religion, andrace? Although thisbookfocusesfirstongender, howdoesit also addresses other Jewish women’s activism? What role didanti-Semitism playinbothlimitingandencouragingAmerican social movements? What doesitmeantofocusonJewishwomeninsecularornon-sectarian Are there elementsofthishistorythatsurprisedyou?Howandwhy? involved in? How doyoumakedecisionsaboutwhatsocialorpolitical causestobe Why orwhynot? effective atthetime?Doyouthinkanyofthesestrategieswouldworktoday? Which oftheactiviststrategiesthatyouread aboutdoyouthinkwere most or comeintoconflictwiththeirethnic/religious identities? When, why, andhowdidJewishwomen’s progressive activismeitherunderline women tograpplewithbecomingAmericancitizens? NYU PRESSINSTRUCTOR’S GUIDE

11 SUPPLEMENTAL ASSIGNMENTS

support women’s activism. Do you find this religious material convincing? activism. Do you find this support women’s Locate and read several sermons about war and peace (delivered by clergy by clergy several sermons about war and peace (delivered Locate and read achieved success in eliminating movement of the 1930s The birth control some cause you believe in. How do you win Design a campaign in support of to in the book that served to some of the Jewish texts referred Explore at the same time as suffrage, birth control, and peace. Research this activism, this activism, and peace. Research birth control, as suffrage, at the same time it context, and compare ethnic/religious which took place within a much more community. to their activism outside the Jewish be used to strengthen religion or denomination). How can of any religion undermine them? peace movements? To but not all of them. on contraception, some of the legal restrictions and of other major legal battles over birth control the history Research rights. reproductive people to your side? Investigate the history of second wave American feminism. What are the the What are of second wave American feminism. Investigate the history Zionism in the labor movement and heavily involved Jewish women were opponents of these movements mount? What kinds of activism did the of activism did the movements mount? What kinds opponents of these or opposing the cause? people supporting the twentieth century? first wave feminism of earlier in connections to the Using periodicals from the time period (1890s-1940s), investigate the investigate the (1890s-1940s), the time period from Using periodicals of the other groups of activists who seem to be missing from the master master the from missing to be who seem activists of other groups of the about these movements? narratives did of arguments What kinds or peace. birth control, to suffrage, opposition of between the groups any similarities there in? Were opponents engage Select one of the women’s movements for further research. Who are some some are Who research. for further movements the women’s one of Select ➥ ➥ ➥ ➥ ➥ ➥ ➥ ➥

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➥ BALLOTS, BABIES, AND BANNERS OF PEACE